How do I know how many hotel rooms to reserve for a wedding?

Question

I have to book rooms far in advance (10 months) due to a large event in the area on my wedding weekend. I have no idea how many of my 156 guests will come--probably 100 to 120. This would be a lot of rooms.

How does this process work? Do you have to have enough money on your credit card to pay for all the rooms? Yikes!

It's not a destination wedding for me, but all my family and my fiancee's family are travelling between 4 and 10 hours to get here. If everyone came, they would need 50-something rooms--can you rent half of a hotel? The wedding is not actually at the hotel, either.

I cannot wait until invitations are sent to decide this or all the rooms in the city will be taken (a really big event is coming to town, the dates of which changed after we set our date and booked our location...)

Answer 1

Talk to the group rate coordinator and ask her to hold a block of 50 or so rooms with a 2 to 3 month window for people to call back and confirm a reservation. You shouldn't have to put a huge deposit down but they may want something. Try the same thing at another hotel and then when you send out your save the date cards (soon) politely inform them that due to a large event coming to town that reserving the rooms now would be the only way to insure that they would have one.

"Rooms are being held till xyz date under discount code MYWEDDING--they will normally give you one of these if you are holding that many rooms to make sure they fill up--at the following hotels. Let me know if I can be of any help to you in securing reservations."

You could also tell them about rental cars if they are going to need one during that time too. Big events usually means limited cars. Good luck.

Answer 2

First off is this a destination wedding or is it in town but you are having the wedding at the hotel? If it is in town then I would contact the hotel about holding a block of rooms, this way you are not paying for the rooms, maybe just a small deposit for the holding, and your guest will pay for the rooms. You would have them held under a party name when they set their reservation. I would hold as many rooms as you have out of town guests and remember there will be couples and families so if 100 people came you would probebly only need 50-45 rooms. I would also count your wedding party and your parents, the people who are going to stay at the event the lastest and help clean up. If it is a Destination wedding I would check into blocking 45- 50 rooms, that should hold 100 to 120 guests. If the hotel doesn't allow that I would let your guests know of hotels in the area on an insert in your wedding invite so they can book themselves.

Answer 3

The way it works for mine is we picked a hotel and reserved a block of rooms. IE the fifth floor.

We pay 10% of the total cost of booking all those room. This way the hotel is not out of any money if the rooms are not used. IE if it was 500 bucks you give the hotel $50.

If a set number of guests book their rooms there by the date we get our deposit back. IE say 25 out of 30. If none of them do that $50 can be used as partial payment for a room on the wedding night but we will have to book at their full price, not off a discount website like travelocity.

Our guests have until a certain deadline to call the hotel and book their rooms. IE March 20, 2007 for March 2008 wedding with invites sent out in Feb 2007.

They call and use their own credit cards whatever for however long they want to stay and book their rooms. After the deadline if a guest has decided to book themselves at another cheaper hotel or if they are not coming any of the unused rooms are no longer reserved especially for us and are open to first come first serve. guests can still book a hotel room but are not guranteed a floor or room.

On the invitation for all out of town guests is an insert. Prefered Lodging: Happy Inn, Address, 150 per night, website, phone number
Prefered Airline: Delta Airlines, website, number, password for our group (If so many of them use the same airline they get a discount just like the hotel)

Please note that Event X has been moved and scheduled on the same weekend as our wedding so rooms in the area will fill up fast. Blocks have been reserved at the prefered lodging and airlines for your convinence but are not required to be used. To take advantage of the reservations and savings please book by March 20, 2007.

Other Lodgings: put information of other hotels in area that show vacancies on/around your date

Other Airlines: put information of any other airlines that are in your airport

Car Rental Companies: info

Campgrounds, Etc.: Ray Roberts State Parks, offers camp sites and log cabins, website, phone number

Answer 4

How does this process work?
A room block is where you reserve a bunch of rooms at a hotel or a number of hotels depending on your needs. Its great for guests because they get a lower rate, and can hang out with family outside of the wedding itself.

There are two types of room blocks. The first one requires you to put a deposit and makes you responsible for unused rooms. I would not recommend this one. I would ask instead for a courtesy room block which requires no deposit and no penalty for rooms not reserved.

Do you have to have enough money on your credit card to pay for all the rooms?
You would at the time of the wedding itself but anything prior to that you would only need to have enough to cover the deposit.

Answer 5

Most hotels will allow a bride to hold a block of rooms - usually about 10-15, depending on the size of the hotel.

What you might want to do is speak to some of your out of town guests well in advance and advise them to reserve the rooms early so they're not blocked out. Otherwise, see about having a secondary hotel as a backup if possible.

Answer 6

I think you can reserve a block. You can pretty much figure out who will come and need lodging. But always plan for a little more. I don't think you are committed to the number of rooms you reserve. Every wedding invitation I've gotten has a cut-off date by which guests have to reserve a room in order to get the discounted price. So I just think the hotel allows you "hold" the rooms, but when it gets closer to your wedding, they will stop "holding" them and open them up to the public.

Answer 7

most hotels have a limit to how many they wil hold. so call and reserve a block of rooms at the discounted rate. they will tell you the cut off date. then send an insert in the invitations, some hotels will give you business cards. You shouldn't have to give any money or credit card numbers. It will be up to your guests to make their reservations in time. Any room not reserved will just be rented to someone else, no obl to you.

Answer 8

Some hotels want you to present a credit card to hold the rooms on in case not all rooms are purchased. It then would bride and grooms responsibility to pay for them via credit card. However, some hotels do not do that. We have a 30 room book for our wedding. The hotel we decided on does not ask for our credit card. We visited 3 hotels the 3rd hotel we visited we decided to use. So, before you finally decide visit a couple of different hotels in the area. I hope that I helped you out.

Answer 9

Well this is why planning is a headache. If you don't have all that money for each guest then ask some of them to pay for there own room and make sure you let them know when to reserve them. Some hotels will want you to pay all up front and some will just want you to pay when they check it. Call them and ask also ask if they have a special if you book so many rooms. Good luck

Answer 10

When u send out the invitations you need to make sure you have an RSVP or call them and ask them if they need a room reserved or let them know if they need one reserved they need to reserve it